NEW DELHI: The corporate battle between multinational cab aggregator Uber and its Indian competitor Meru has reached the Supreme Court which put on hold on Friday the Competition Appellate Tribunal (Compat) order directing probe against Uber for allegedly resorting to unfair trade practices including predatory pricing.

The tribunal had on December 7 directed fair trade watchdog CCI to conduct a fresh probe against Uber for allegedly indulging in unfair practices.

The tribunal had passed the order on a plea of Meru Travels Solution accusing the multi-national company of resorting to abusive practices with an intent to establish its monopoly and eliminate other competitors by granting huge discounts and incentives to its customers.

Challenging the tribunal's verdict, Uber told SC that the order was illegal as the tribunal itself had come to the conclusion there was prima facie nothing against it. Appearing before a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and D Y Chandrachud, Uber's counsel Harish Salve said the tribunal committed an error by reversing the order of CCI and directing a probe against it.

Salve said the probe would have global ramifications and the company would suffer because of the tribunal's order which is bad in law. Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Meru, opposed his plea and argued against staying the probe. He said the tribunal passed a reasoned order and court should not interfere by staying its operation. The bench agreed to examine validity of tribunal's order and asked Meru to file response.

Prices of most SUVs were cut between Rs 1.1 lakh and Rs 3 lakh following the implementation of GST, which subsumed over a dozen central and state levies like excise duty, service tax, and VAT from July 1.